Marriage & divorce: an immigration nightmare

Time and legal options are running out for a Naples family caught up in an immigration nightmare.

Thursday, February 21st 2019, 5:49 PM EST by Dave Elias

Updated:

Thursday, February 21st 2019, 7:22 PM EST

NAPLES, Fla. - 14-year old Allysa sat in her Naples living room wiping tears from her eyes as she explained not only her parent’s divorce, but how her father left she and her brother with no legal status in the United States.

“He’s my father and the way he left us was pretty bad,” Allysa sobbed.

Time and legal options are running out for the Naples family caught up in an immigration nightmare.

“It came as a shock when he asked for a divorce,” Daza said. The stay at home mom found herself alone raising her kids. “I just wake up in the middle of the night time just thinking what is going to happen,” she said.

That's because her now ex-husband has moved to Texas, and has not petitioned his children to become citizens. Allysa is 14 and still in school. She is more worried about her brother, Michelle now 18, who can't work or drive.

“He's really smart. He should be going off to college right now and he can't,” she wept. His dreams of being a video game developer destroyed.

“If he actually cared for his children we wouldn't be in this situation right now,” Michelle said as he fought back tears.

They sought the legal help of Fort Myers Immigration Attorney Indera DeMine. “Even if he didn't want to help mom he could file petitions for the kids to allow them to remain here. After all he brought them here,” said DeMine.

DeMine said despite that the father has no obligation to help his children or ex-wife.

“It does not hold the U.S. citizen parent’s feet to the fire at all saying if you bring your children here you must give them legal status even if you have an opportunity to do so,” DeMine explained.

A matter US Congressman Francis Rooney is now concerned about.

“Well it's a heart wrenching situation for this poor lady who is no longer a Canadian and not even a Venezuelan and now she can't stay in the United States,” Rooney said. Calling it further proof the nation’s immigration system needs to be fixed.

“Our office is going to get all over that and try to see if we can't help her out,” Rooney said.

“I want to be a doctor like my father. He actually does care about his patients. The home life is something different,” she said.

The mom and kids are living in Florida on visitor visas and those are about to expire.

The mother can’t file paperwork to be a citizen here in the US because she has no legal standing unless her ex-husband petitions her, or she marries an American citizen.

She doesn’t want to return to Venezuela because of the war and hunger in the country. She said the neighborhood where she lived is now crime-ridden, and her children have never spent any significant time there and they don't even speak Spanish.